Theft of electricity involves tapping current from the electricity network while avoiding that the current is registered by the electricity meter that is used to bill the user. Often this is done by connecting power cables to the feed into a house in front of the electricity meter, or by tampering with the operation of the electricity meter itself. Currently, detection of this form of theft is cumbersome. Usually it involves visual inspection by a human inspector.
Technical alternatives involve the use of electricity meters that are protected against tampering. U.S. Pat. No. 6,232,886 discloses an electricity meter with a movement detector for example. However, movement detection does not provide for detection of forms of theft wherein power lines are tapped at some distance from the electricity meter.
Another solution involves measuring current supply at a distribution point and comparing the cumulative measured current with registered current use at homes connected to the distribution point. With conventional electricity meters such a measurement involves measured current use over an extended period of time. But even if all users have accepted more modern electricity meters that can be read off at a distance almost instantaneously, such a measurement still does not tell where the current theft occurs.